Market research firm Interpret recently made some discoveries about public perception of smartphones that should shock, surprise, and amaze you. The just released report, dubbed "Signature Smartphones: Gaining Mindshare in Order to Gain Market Share," reveals that despite being massively disadvantaged in the marketplace, Palm managed to nab a huge chunk of mindshare with the Pre -- in fact, the report suggests that the Pre is number two only to the iPhone 3GS in the metric. The study looks at the driving factors behind purchaser's decisions to buy a smartphone, narrowing down the list to three major components: belief that the phone is "smart," belief that the phone is "hip / cool," and belief that the phone will make them more productive. Rating a swath of phones (BlackBerry Curve and Storm, G1, iPhone), the report found that only the iPhone and Pre balanced the three factors in a way in which consumers felt the higher price tags were warranted. More to the point, only the Pre and the iPhone 3GS managed to strike that balance at all; offerings such as the two BlackBerrys were lopsided. There's not much more meat to the study, though it does shed some interesting light on just how Palm managed to squeeze its way back into the limelight (of course, it doesn't hurt to have a product that's actually kind of cool). Check out the whole PDF for yourself over at that read link.
Disclosure: Engadget columnist Michael Gartenberg is an employee of Interpret, and worked on the study cited above.
posted Sep 24th 2009 8:48AM
There is a lot of people that say "Majority rules", but as we all know, and have learned; sometimes the majority isnt right.
It always also seems that only 10% of the worlds population is smart, and we all are in that group, and 90% have no common sense.
All Im saying here is that just because a lot of people say or think a Pre or iPhone is "Smart" doesnt make it so. Just because a lot of people say that a Pre or iPhone makes them more productive, doesnt mean it really does.
I'm surprised that you're surprised that these are the results. What were you expecting? The top 2 devices get the lion's share of tv airtime, thus the mindshare. Blackberry doesn't have a true hero device, and up til now is a pure business play. Andriod phones are (soon to be) ubiquitous, and after the initial fanfare, was soon found out to be lacking in the experience department (it's google, duh), since it's mainly an OS. Smartphone, that's industry jargon, not something the populace at large adheres to.
when the iPhone comes to Verizon towards the end of the first quarter of 2010, the majority will rule.
its coming...
contract is signed with removable battery and expandable memory.
contracts signed, with removable battery and expandable memory
Just goes to show how effective marketing is to the 'impressionable' minds of the information age.
Apple produces a good mainstream product but then proceeds to blatantly lie to everyone's face, creating rabid fanboys/girls equatable to the ilk that jumped on the 'Ban Di-Hydrogen Monoxide' bandwagon (normal for Apple regardless) while Palm later puts out a much more respectable and highly functional product...
...All the while, those in the ubiquitous Windows Mobile crowd silently soldier on waiting for their flashy finger-friendly update and secretly conceal a raging blood-lust for Justin Long and Steve Jobs. Deep down they gleefully fantasize about the day (that will likely never come) that the mainstream has a revelation of substance over style and recognizes the raw capabilities of their chosen OS over the highly publicized and popularized competition.
Did I read too far into that?
What "public" - the ones buying more Windows Mobile devices than iPhones?
Remember - the world is not the US alone.
And yet Verizon worthless passed on both these phones....hmmmmmmm how stupid can one entity be
I switched to Palm Pre from iPhone 3G the day it came out and I love it. The iPhone 3GS is defiantly a faster phone, but since the Pre does multi tasking, its much faster to use the Pre (since I can be viewing a web site, receive a txt, reading an email, etc.. switching easily between them all without losing my place in the program). So even though the iPhone is much faster, in day to day use, the Pre is faster cause I can get more done in real world scenarios.
I have a feeling that Apple is going to move to that direction in a future iPhone.
Recently i unlocked my 3GS 3.1.2 iphone and i want to know if its safe, i used http://www.unlock-iphone.org , please tell me if its safe